Pasty, Charity, Caravan, Church Tax - gone. What about the Granny Tax?

Yesterday marked yet another U-Turn on what must have been the worst budget in living. Yep, I am talking about the last one when the Granny Tax was created. 

Once I read in the FT the cover story about the 'rich boomers' (the weekend before the budget) it was clear that Osborne was going to continue the plans that he and the dreadful Mr Willetts had made to increase taxes on older people.

So now we have the Chancellor going back on four of his daft budget tax ideas but you notice the one that remains? Yep, the Granny Tax. 

What made me comment about this nonsense was the news that only one in three pensioners stop working at the state pension age - mainly because the cannot afford to do so. Let me quote:

Mintel found that only three in ten pensioners retired when they reached state pension age over the year to February 2012. This is down from 48 per cent of people the previous year. One in eight people said that they had retired because they could afford to last year.

The Chief Executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said that many people reach retirement age and realise that they simply can not afford to stop working.

“Sadly many people are finding their retirement plans turn out to be a mirage. They get near, realise they can’t afford it, and see the day when they’ll stop working slip further into the distance”

Willetts and Osborne are like rabbits in the headlights. All they can see is a big pot of property wealth of older people that they want to tax. The reality of what is happening to the finances of older people is either beyond their grasp to understand or something they would prefer to ignore. 

Sorry for the moan. Dick Stroud